Smokescreen greatly diminishes the utility of an enemy champion that relies on ranged unit-targeted spells, such as Cassiopeia or Annie because vision of their target is required to cast these spells.

Graves'sQuickdraw can be used to dash through thin terrain. This allows Graves to be very mobile and can benefit him in chases and escapes.

Try to use Collateral Damage at the beginning of a teamfight when your enemies are grouped together, allowing you to hit multiple targets.

When the champion you are against has a blink (e.g. Ezreal), and he attempts to engage you, throw a Smokescreen to where he blinked, and quickly dash away leaving your opponent visionless.

By using smart cast, you can cast Buckshot and Quickdraw together in such a way that you dash back while shooting the three bullets of Buckshot in front of you. Use this combo to finish off enemies with low health and make a quick escape.

Runaan's Hurricane's passive lets Graves reduce the cooldown of Quickdraw three times faster, as the 2 minor bolts are considered to be auto attacks. Despite letting him use Quickdraw more often as Graves is an AD caster damage items are more effective.

Despite being listed as a default recommended offensive item, Blade of the Ruined King is an ill-advised item to rush on Graves since Graves have relatively high AD scaling skills and the item does not give enough AD.

However, it synergizes well with Quickdraw as the attack speed it provides will help reduce the cooldown Quickdraw. Blade of the Ruined King is recommended when dealing with health tanks as Quickdraw allows Graves to use the passive effectively. The active effect is also useful in duels.

Recommended builds

Summoner's Rift

Starting

Essential

Offensive

Defensive

Consumables

The Howling Abyss

Starting

22

Essential

Offensive

Defensive

Consumables

The Crystal Scar

Starting

2

Essential

Offensive

Defensive

Consumables

The Twisted Treeline

Starting

Essential

Offensive

Defensive

Consumables

Countering

One of Graves' strengths is his burst. Try to avoid his high burst and take advantage of his high cooldowns during the early game.

Also note that Graves' auto attack is fairly short (525 range), use this as your advantage by playing poke based ADCs (Ezreal and Caitlyn).

Consider investing in early armor to mitigate his damage at early game.